Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman refused to resign under pressure from the Board of Regents after he was told he’d be fired unless he stepped down on his own, according to two letters released by the UW system Thurdsday.

Rothman wrote in a March 26 letter to Regent President Amy Bogost he’d been given no reason why the board was seeking his removal since Bogost first asked for his resignation late last month. 

“Since to date you have not provided any substantive reason or reasons for the Board’s finding of no confidence in my leadership, I am not prepared, as a matter of principle, to submit my resignation,” Rothman wrote in the letter.

The Associated Press first reported on the letter.

The Board of Regents held a last-minute special meeting Wednesday to discuss personnel matters in closed session. 

“The Board is responsible for the leadership of the Universities of Wisconsin and is having discussions about its future. We don’t comment on personnel matters,” Bogost said in a statement. 

Rothman wrote in his letter to Bogost that the board president told him during a March 21 meeting with Regent Vice President Kyle Weatherly that an “unidentified majority” of the Board of Regents had “lost confidence” in his leadership. 

He claims Bogost did not provide any “tangible reasons” for the board’s determination and argued the timing of the board’s conclusions suggested that the board had made its decision without holding an in-person or virtual meeting. 

“From a Board governance and leadership perspective, I find that to be extraordinarily difficult for the board to defend,” Rothman said.

Rothman included in the letter a list of the Universities of Wisconsin achievements under his tenure, which began in 2022.

He cited the ongoing selection of new chancellors at UW-Madison and UW-Eau Claire as well as looming budget planning among the reasons why it would not be in the system’s best interest for him to resign. 

Rothman, whose salary increased to $583,440 in 2024, repeated his refusal to resign in a Wednesday letter addressed to Regents Ashok Rai and Jack Salzwedel.

According to that letter, the two regents urged Rothman to submit his resignation in a Tuesday meeting and told him the board was prepared to meet this weekend to fire Rothman.

Rothman claims he again was not offered a reason he was being asked to leave. The UW president said in both letters that he has asked for the opportunity to discuss the situation before the board, and that Rai and Salzwedel told him this would not happen. 

Rai and Salzwedel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Rothman’s tenure has coincided with a contentious period for the Universities of Wisconsin and for higher ed in general. His term has seen tuition increases, following a decade-long tuition freeze imposed by the state Legislature. 

In 2023, he brokered a compromise with GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to release $800 million in employee cost-of-living raises in exchange for a hiring freeze on diversity, equity and inclusion positions.

Last year, UW received what Gov. Tony Evers and Rothman touted as the system’s largest funding increase in two decades, though it came with new teaching load requirements for instructors and a continued cap on the number of system employees. 

Also in the last year, the university system has struggled with federal funding cuts under the second Trump administration, with outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin telling the board in February that that campus had seen a 17% cut to federal research funding in 2025. 

Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, who chairs the Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges, called the debacle “the latest example of how politics within the Board of Regents is counterproductive to the UW System’s best interests.”

“Instead of political maneuvering, they should be focusing on reducing their bureaucracy, consolidating more of the struggling two-year campuses, and institute reforms that align with the needs of Wisconsin employers, and make higher education more affordable for all Wisconsin students,” Hutton said in a statement.